"I am still struck by just how interested Valve is in Linux as a platform; it is certainly beyond my original expectations. This Linux work just is not some half-assed attempt by them to make it look like they are a Linux-friendly organization. Gabe's vision to support, embrace, and promote Linux are amazing, assuming they execute, which looks to be very high probability at this point."
Nice scoop from Phoronix. Seems to all tie in quite well with the prospect of a Steambox running Linux.

Y'know, that makes great sense from both technical and business perspectives.

From a technical perspective, a SteamBox console would require only modest development costs - the hardware, OS, and support infrastructure exist already - and the ecosystem is already mature, TV-friendly, and fairly lightweight.

From a business perspective, Steam would get an inexpensively developed console product that could dramatically expand the market for Steam games, and open new revenue streams with profit-sharing from UbuntuOne-based sales and such - and possibly some marketing cost-sharing with Canonical to boot. Plus they get closer to their customers by no longer depending on Apple and Microsoft as sole hosts for their games.